Overview

This session explores why a shift from “old school” to “new school” is needed as Rhode Island moves from planning to implementing its healthcare workforce transformation. Improved workforce data can be used to drive policy change and evaluate outcomes. The webinar will demonstrate that the efforts are not just about transforming the workforce — and explain the need to redesign education, practice, payment and regulatory structures that support the workforce.

Learning Objectives

At the completion of the program, participants will be able to:

• Explain why new payment and care delivery models require a broader definition of the health workforce
• Discuss how transforming the workforce includes the redesign of education, practice, payment, and regulatory structures that support the current and future workforce
• Explain why better workforce data are needed to drive policy to change and evaluate outcomes of your work

Speakers

Erin P. Fraher, PhD, MPP

Erin P. Fraher, PhD, MPP. is an Assistant Professor (tenure track) in the Department of Family Medicine at the School of Medicine at UNC-Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). She also holds appointments as a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery and as an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management. Dr. Fraher is the Principal Investigator of the Carolina Health Workforce Research Center, one of six HRSA-funded national health workforce research centers. She is Deputy Director for Policy at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at UNC-CH. Dr. Fraher was recently appointed as a member of the Council on Graduate Medical Education (COGME), an advisory body reporting to Congress and the DHHS Secretary on the supply, distribution, training and financing of the physician workforce.

Dr. Fraher has worked as a health workforce researcher and policy analyst for over 20 years. Her background in public policy coupled with her training in health services research greatly enhances her ability to translate research into actionable “intelligence” that stakeholders use for program planning and policy decisions. She is frequently called upon by legislators, staffers, government officials, health professions educators, employers, regulators and other stakeholders to conduct analyses on a wide variety of emerging health workforce topics. Dr. Fraher is an expert on comparative health workforce systems, having worked for the National Health Service in England, Health Workforce New Zealand and the College of Nurses of Ontario in Canada. She has a BA in Economics/Spanish from Wellesley College, a MPP from the University of California at Berkeley and a PhD in Health Policy and Management from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.